Sports

Skipping Top Prospects game costly for Yakupov

Nail Yakupov didn't board a Kelowna-bound plane for the top prospects game this week.

Now the Sarnia Sting star is feeling two games worth of suspension from the Ontario Hockey League, who punished the likely first overall pick in this summer's NHL draft for his no-show.

"We believe he could've been there," Canadian Hockey League president and OHL commissioner David Branch said Friday evening. "This is a tremendous event. There were 300 scouts and NHL general managers in attendance and fans who came to see 40 of the best hockey prospects in the world."

Yakupov missed nearly a month with a knee injury suffered during the world junior tournament. He returned to the lineup last Friday in Kingston and played in three games in three days.

Sting GM and head coach Jacques Beaulieu released a statement saying Yakupov would not be going west and the club had a note from Dr. Bob Giffin of London's Fowler Kennedy Sports Medicine Clinic advising rest for Yakupov and that it was "in the best interest of the player not to partake" in the event.

He was supposed to play again for the Sting at home against the Plymouth Whalers on Friday.

"We're very much aware of the Fowler Kennedy clinic in London and we're very much aware of the reputation of this particular doctor," Branch said. "A doctor's note is very important, we're not saying it isn't. We're saying we would've liked to see him (Yakupov) fly out to Kelowna and be examined by the doctors on site, which are provided by the host team (Kelowna Rockets)."

Branch pointed to the example of Mikhail Grigorenko, a Russian prospect with the Quebec Remparts expected to challenge Yakupov for the No. 1 status.

"Mikhail had a slight injury coming into the event and he flew out to Kelowna and was examined by the doctors there," he said. "He was cleared to play but his activities were curtailed. You look at what the Plymouth Whalers did with (forward) Tom Wilson. They sat him out (a league game) so he would be able to play in Kelowna.

"This is a very important game."

Branch said he has never before disciplined a player for missing the Top Prospects Game, but it's within his league's right to do so.

There is no precedent but the NHL has a similar option of suspending one of its players two games for failing to attend its all-star game.

"It's a policy in our league," Branch said. "It's a minimum two-game suspension. The Canadian Hockey League asked the OHL to look at the possibility of discipline. That's an important distinction to make."